Ph.D. with only 48 credits?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by chrisjm18, Jul 9, 2020.

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  1. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Liberty will be offering a Ph.D. in Public Administration beginning in the fall. However, the curriculum is identical to its current Doctor of Public Administration (DPA), except for the culminating requirements. The Ph.D. requires a dissertation while the DPA requires a capstone project. Both are 48 credits. Weird!

    They already have a Ph.D. in Public Policy, although public policy isn't the same as public administration. I think the DPA was enough!!! They are just coming up with all these doctorates... shameful!

    Ph.D.
    https://www.liberty.edu/online/government/doctoral/phd-public-administration/

    DPA
    https://www.liberty.edu/online/government/doctoral/public-administration/
     
  2. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  3. AlK11

    AlK11 Active Member

    Not a PhD, but the EdD I'm working on is only 45 credits beyond a masters. That's one of the main things that drew me to the program.
     
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  4. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Columbia University's Doctor of Engineering Science requires only 30 credits beyond a Master's degree. Capitol Technology University's Ph.D. is mostly 60 credits, but they compress to only 10 courses.
     
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  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Who cares? The real work--and the measure of the degree--is the original contribution to scholarship (in the case of the PhD and other scholarly doctorates) or practice (in the case of professional doctorates). No one will care how many credits you took or how your work was even credited. But they WILL care about your research, who supervised it, what else you did during your program, etc.
     
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  6. not4profit

    not4profit Active Member

    I agree. I have also never seen anyone care about GPA either, for doctorates. Maybe that would be different if someone barely squeeked through.
     
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  7. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Neither of mine have credits nor grades, at least in the American sense. No one cares.
     
  8. Nemo

    Nemo Member

    I wish they would have launched the PA program before I started the CJ program. My Masters is in PA and while I obviously like the Liberty set-up, I did not want the DPA over a Ph.D, so I turned to CJ.
     
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  9. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    That's an irresponsible statement. I think something like "people generally don't care" or "most people don't care" is more appropriate. You cannot speak for everyone.
     
  10. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Are you too far in the CJ program to switch? Like more than 12 credits?
     
  11. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

  12. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  13. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I don't think they did, exactly. Just the way people talk. They're very proud of their location - Colorado State, at Fort Collins. Here's what they have to say about Fort Collins on the web page. https://admissions.colostate.edu/location/ "There's something special about Fort Collins." There appears to be nothing about an actual name-change - at least nothing that I could find. And Googling "Fort Collins University" leads only to Colorado State.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2020
  14. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Of course. It's the only university in Fort Collins.
     
  15. copper

    copper Active Member

    Why is it shameful? I think it is admirable. I also noticed the military veteran discount and first responder discount now available at the doctoral level if one takes the executive certificate for 21 credits on the journey to a doctorate. Potentially, that’s a doctorate for $10k. Wow! Thanks for the post!
     
  16. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    It's shameful because I know the intent of Liberty for creating all these doctorates. Liberty is one of the universities that's a NINO (non-profit in name only). The Emergency Response Personnel (ERP) discount was always available at the doctoral level. I have received this discount from the beginning of my program in 2018 and will continue to do so through 2023 (though I intend to be PhinisheD long before then). However, the military discount is new for all doctorates (previously only Ed.D. received this discount at $275 or $207 when combined with the ERP discount). It's no doubt one of the cheapest way to earn a doctorate. The new military discount cannot be combined with the ERP discount. You'd be looking at about 15k for a 48-credit doctorate or 18k for a program with 60 credits.
     
  17. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    I wouldn't trade my USC doctorate path but I looked long and hard at Liberty before deciding. If they had the military discount at the doctorate level for all programs then it would have been a much tougher decision. Sticking with the Liberty price point allowed other options for use of funds and since I had taken graduate courses there before I had no issues with their curriculum.
     
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  18. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    What is your doctorate from USC in?
     
  19. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Fine. No one cares.

    You're splitting hairs in a discussion thread.
     
  20. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    #ICare #DoctorateCreditsMatter
     

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